[Lingtyp] Indexes fossilizing

[Mark Donohue]

On Tok Pisin; the fate of '[t]he subject pronoun *he*' is fully sealed in
Sandaun province. In standard Tok Pisin verbs appear with *i* when they
occur with a subject that is not 1SG or 2SG:

*mi sindaun* 'I sit'
*yu sindaun* 'you sit'
*em i sindaun* 's/he sits'
*mipela i* *sindaun* 'we sit'
*yumi i sindaun* 'we.INCL sit'
*yupla i* *sindaun* 'you.PL sit'
*ol i sindaun* 'they sit'

This suggests some minimal set of agreement features being bourn by *i*.
In Sandaun province the paradigm is extended:

*mi i sindaun* 'I sit'
*yu i sindaun* 'you sit'
*em i sindaun* 's/he sits'
*mipla i sindaun* 'we sit'
*yupla i sindaun* 'you.PL sit'
*ol i* *sindaun* 'they sit'

And argument could be made that this invariant syllable is better analysed
as part of the verb root (*mi isindaun*, for example); the fact that it
occurs on each verb in a complex construction (in Sandaun) adds to this
argument.

*yu i mas i go* / *yu imas igo* 'you must go'

The exception is that it does not appear in bare imperatives (*Sindaun!*,
not *Isindaun!*, but see the preferred* Yu isindaun!*). If we allow for the
possibility of a subtractive morpheme for the bare imperative, this would
be a case of an agreement marker becoming fossilised on to all verbs.

-Mark


On Fri, 1 Dec 2023 at 03:13, Christian Lehmann <
christian.lehmann at uni-erfurt.de> wrote:

> Quoting from Lehmann 1982, §7.1:
>
> "The English free object pronoun *him* develops, in Tok Pisin, first into
> an agreement suffix of the verb and then into an invariable marker of all
> transitive verbs (ex. (55)). The subject pronoun *he* suffers a similar
> fate (see Givón 1976, § 8.2. and Sankoff 1977) [becoming a verb marker]."
>
> Lehmann, Christian 1982, “Universal and typological aspects of agreement”.
> Seiler, Hansjakob & Stachowiak, Franz Josef (eds.), *Apprehension. Das
> sprachliche Erfassen von Gegenständen.* Teil II: Die Techniken und ihr
> Zusammenhang in den Einzelsprachen. Tübingen: G. Narr (LUS, 1, II);
> 201-267. [ download
> <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248224763_Universal_and_typological_aspects_of_agreement>
> ]
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Am 30.11.2023 um 11:29 schrieb Juergen Bohnemeyer:
>
> Dear all – I’m passing along the following query from one of my advisees,
> Jose Antonio Jodar Sánchez:
>
>
>
> “I have been looking for references which talk about pronominal affixes on
> verbs which have become fossilized and are now part of the verb root. I
> checked Anna Siewierska’s book on person but I could not find anything. Do
> you know of any?”
>
>
>
> Presumably, what Jose Antonio’s is looking for is above all citable
> treatments. However, if the phenomenon hasn’t been dealt with exhaustively
> (which it may not), I’m sure examples will be helpful as well.
>
>
>
> Thanks! – Juergen
>
>
>
> Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
> Professor, Department of Linguistics
> University at Buffalo
>
> Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus
> Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260
> Phone: (716) 645 0127
> Fax: (716) 645 3825
> Email: jb77 at buffalo.edu
> Web: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/
>
> Office hours Tu/Th 3:30-4:30pm in 642 Baldy or via Zoom (Meeting ID 585
> 520 2411; Passcode Hoorheh)
>
> There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In
> (Leonard Cohen)
>
> --
>
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>
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